title: Osteometric sex determination of burned human skeletal remains.
abstract: Sex determination of human burned skeletal remains is extremely hard to achieve because of heat-related fragmentation, warping and dimensional changes. In particular, the latter is impeditive of osteometric analyses that are based on references developed on unburned bones. New osteometric references were thus obtained which allow for more reliable sex determinations. The calcined remains of cremated Portuguese individuals were examined and specific standard measurements of the humerus, femur, talus and calcaneus were recorded. This allowed for the compilation of new sex discriminating osteometric references which were then tested on independent samples with good results. Both the use of simple section points and of logistic regression equations provided successful sex classification scores. These references may now be used for the sex determination of burned skeletons. Its reliability is highest for contemporary Portuguese remains but nonetheless these results have important repercussion for forensic research. More conservative use of these references may also prove valuable for other populations as well as for archaeological research.
authors.affiliation: Research Centre for Anthropology and Health (CIAS), Universidade de Coimbra. Rua do Arco da Traição, 3000-056 Coimbra, Portugal; Forensic Sciences Centre (CENCIFOR). Largo da Sé Nova, 3000-213 Coimbra, Portugal; Laboratório de Arqueociências, Direcção Geral do Património Cultural and LARC/CIBIO/InBIO, Rua da Bica do Marquês 2, 1300-087 Lisboa, Portugal. Electronic address: davidmiguelgoncalves@gmail.com.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gonçalves
authors.forename: T J U
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cunha
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000473:pathology*; D055700:Cremation; D005260:Female; D018732:Forensic Anthropology; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D054881:Sex Determination by Skeleton / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Bioarchaeology; Biological profile; Burned bones; Cremains; Forensic anthropology; Sexual dimorphism